Saturday, March 29, 2014

...no, not Sgt. Pepper. Thirty years ago today, in the dead of night amidst a late season snowstorm, the worst thing that could ever happen to a Baltimore Colts fan happened - Robert Irsay took the team, along with it's colors and history, to Indianapolis.

Irsay acquired the Colts in 1972 after buying the then Los Angeles Rams and trading them for the Colts that same day. The Colts were an impressive franchise back then. The team sold out 51 straight games in the 1960s and won the Super Bowl in 1971. During Irsay’s first year of ownership, attendance averaged at more than 60,000 fans. But that would change.

Irsay fired the coach who had won the Super Bowl just two seasons earlier and later traded away the legendary Johnny Unitas. Irsay’s decisions damaged the team’s reputation to the point where, in 1983, the Colts drafted John Elway—the top college draft pick then—but he refused to sign. Instead, he said he’d rather play baseball for the Yankees. That forced Irsay to trade Elway to the Denver Broncos, where he became one of the best NFL quarterbacks of all-time.

Many of those who face eminent domain can’t pack up their homes and businesses and skip town. But Irsay could. The very next day, he called Indianapolis Mayor William Hudnut and told him the Colts were moving to Indianapolis.

Upon hearing the news, Mayor Hudnut called his neighbor, who owned Mayflower Transit, to send 15 trucks, free of charge, to the Colts’ facilities in Owing Mills, Md. Late Wednesday night, the vans pulled in. In the midnight hours, the team gathered everything they could and loaded the trucks as quickly as possible.

To avoid arousing suspicion and to evade any Maryland police, each truck tookdifferent routes out of the state. When the sun dawned on March 29, the team was gone. Once the trucks reached the Indiana state line, Indiana state troopers escorted the convoy to Indianapolis.

Just hours after the team had left, Maryland’s governor signed the eminent domain bill on March 29. The next day, with this new power, the city began condemnation proceedings against the Colts.

Meanwhile, Indianapolis was ecstatic. On April 2, 20,000 fans, including Hudnut, Irsay and U.S. Senator (and future Vice President) Dan Quayle, attended a welcoming ceremony for the Colts at Hoosier Dome. Ticket demand was high. For every season ticket, the Indianapolis Colts received nearly three requests. Hudnut later described delivering the Colts to Indianapolis as “the most exciting part” of his four terms as mayor.

Even after the Colts left, Charm City’s passion for football never died. The city hosted teams from both the short-lived United States Football League and, rather surreally, the Canadian Football League. For a dozen years, the Baltimore Colts Marching Band continued to play on and even performed at other NFL teams’ halftimes, as shown in the ESPN documentary The Band That Wouldn’t Die. Finally, after a dozen years of waiting, Baltimore became home once again to an NFL team, the Baltimore Ravens in 1996, after Art Modell relocated the Cleveland Browns.

30 years on, Baltimore better without Colts

BALTIMORE -- Saturday marks the 30th anniversary of the most infamous day in Baltimore sports history.

On March 29, 1984, the Colts sneaked out of Baltimore on a snowy night and left a football town in mourning. Grown men and women cried. People drove around the city the next morning with their headlights on as if somebody died.

"It's one of those few moments in life that you vividly remember," said John Moag, who later lured the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore as chairman of the Maryland Stadium Authority. "You hate to put it up with the assassination of John Kennedy, but it had that type of import here."

No one is suggesting Baltimore football fans should forgive. There is still a likeness of the late Colts owner Robert Irsay's head in a casket at a downtown Mexican restaurant.

No one is saying they should forget. An older generation of fans considers the old Colts complex, where the Mayflower moving vans drove away with Baltimore's football heritage, as sacred ground even though it's now a stadium for a Division III college.

It's just time to put this date in perspective. Three decades later, Baltimore is better off without the Colts. This is no longer blasphemy to say. This is simply reality.

Baltimore has sold out every game in a state-of-the-art stadium in one of the finest sports complexes in the country, something that was expedited by the Colts' hasty departure. The city has celebrated two Super Bowl titles with the Ravens, one more than the Indianapolis Colts have. The football team is owned by Steve Bisciotti, the anti-Robert Irsay in many respects. He's a local businessman who spends money to put a perennial winner on the field.

"On game days, I look around, and it sounds dumb, but I just get a big smile on my face. We did it," said John Ziemann, the longtime president of the Baltimore Colts marching band, who served as one of the main torchbearers for getting football back to the city. "The fans, the Colts Corral, the band, the Baltimore Colts alumni and [former mayor] William Donald Schaefer, we all did it."

The only pain that exists is the sting from losing tradition. Those who carried years of anger and bitterness toward the blue horseshoe were missing the Colts from the 1950s and 1960s. There's not much nostalgia for the Irsay years. He got rid of Johnny Unitas in his second year as owner and traded away John Elway before the owner's final season in Baltimore.

The Baltimore Colts had losing seasons in nine of Irsay's 12 seasons as owner, and Memorial Stadium soon became more than half empty. The announced crowd at the Colts' last home game was 20,418.

Once a model franchise, the Colts became a laughingstock under Irsay, who stormed into the locker room during a game in 1980 to demand a quarterback change at halftime and then called plays from the coaching box a year later.

"When I see that horseshoe helmet, I think of the great memories, the pride, the tradition and the love I had for that team," Ziemann said. "But my heart belongs to the black and purple helmet."

AP Photo/Bill SmithRumors swirled about the Colts moving in early 1984. Here, then-owner Robert Irsay had a heated exchange with reporters, denying a rumor he'd made a deal to move the team to Phoenix.

It had been rumored for weeks in March 1984 that Irsay was going to move the Colts. No one believed him. Many thought Irsay's erratic behavior and odd demands would keep the Colts in Baltimore.

That perception changed when The Baltimore Evening Sun reporter Ken Murray received a call at 7 p.m. from a man who saw a Mayflower van heading toward the Colts' complex. Murray called Colts coach Frank Kush, who acknowledged the team was in the process of moving.

"It was a surreal scene," said Murray, the first reporter to arrive on the scene. "I remember feeling a numbness, not from the cold, but from the realization it was actually happening. I was standing in on history, watching the physical dismantling of one of the NFL's greatest franchises. A handful of people had gathered, as much in curiosity as anything else. It was solemn and funeral-like."

Steve LaPlanche, who hasn't missed a professional football game in Baltimore since 1956, drove out to the Colts' complex that night when he received word of the move and watched men load 15,000 pounds of Colts items in 15 Mayflower vans. The Colts were in a rush to get out of town because the Maryland Senate had just passed a bill saying the state had the right to seize the Colts under eminent domain.

"They always reminded me of thieves in the night," said LaPlanche, who stayed there the entire night. "They were literally throwing things in vans."

For 12 years, Baltimore didn't have an NFL team. The city, though, found a new team to support.

"Fans here generally rooted for whichever team played the Colts on any given Sunday," Murray said. "The emotion was almost tangible. There was also real anger directed at the league and its owners, because they had allowed Bob Irsay to get away with his dastardly deed. Those owners didn't appear to have any remorse about it, either."

Keeping the Baltimore Colts memory alive

When children walk through the Sports Legends museum, some ask why there is an Indianapolis Colts exhibit.

"We explain the whole situation to them," said Ziemann, who is also the deputy director of the museum, "and the last thing you see is the back end of a Mayflower moving van."

THE BAND THAT WOULDN'T DIE

Academy Award winner Barry Levinson tells the story of Baltimore's heartbreak when the Colts bolted for Indy through the eyes of the Colts Marching Band.

There are some young football fans who don't know the Baltimore Colts ever existed or that one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history threw passes here. Memorial Stadium, once known as "The World's Largest Outdoor Insane Asylum," has been demolished and replaced with senior housing.

This is what happens when the Colts have been gone for 30 years, which is as long as they played in Baltimore (1953-1983). Even Super Bowl-winning quarterback Joe Flacco was born 10 months after the Colts moved.

"We’re essentially losing a generation of Colts fans," Moag said. "There are residents in their 30s and 40s, and all they know is the Ravens."

The Baltimore Colts' living history is deteriorating, too. Hall of Fame players such as Unitas, Art Donovan and Jim Parker have all passed away after being fixtures in the community.

When the former Baltimore Colts players met once a month, it used to be a gathering of 25 guys. Time has taken a toll on their fraternity.

"Now, unfortunately, through death of some of our brothers, we're down to three to five who come to a meeting," said Bruce Laird, a safety for the Colts from 1972 to 1981.

So many years have passed that there is even a Unitas living in Indianapolis. The granddaughter of the Golden Arm was hired by Andretti Sports Marketing, and the relocation didn't initially go over well with the family.

"I was dumbfounded," said John Unitas Jr., the son of the great quarterback. "I told her, 'Oh my God, they took the Colts, they took your grandfather’s records, and now they’re taking his granddaughter.' "

Don't worry Baltimore, she's not a fan of the Indianapolis Colts.

Moving forward with the Ravens

Baltimore tried to get an NFL team through expansion in 1995, but the league put franchises in Carolina and Jacksonville. NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue suggested Baltimore use its money to build a museum or a plant instead.

If the city wanted football again, it was going to have to do exactly what Indianapolis did with the Colts. In 1996, Art Modell relocated the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore, leaving the name and history behind. On March 29, 1996 -- exactly 12 years after the Colts moved -- Baltimore's new football team was officially named Ravens.

Wary of the feelings that Modell had just "Irsayed" Cleveland, the Ravens embraced the Baltimore Colts. A Unitas statue was built outside M&T Bank Stadium. Former Colts players Tom Matte and Stan White have been part of the radio broadcast team. Popular Colts running back Lenny Moore is a frequent visitor to Ravens practices. The team also adopted the Baltimore Colts marching band.

“The Modells came in and said, ‘We’re not here to erase your history; we’re here to add to it,’ ” Ziemann said.

The Ravens now have a history of their own after completing their 17th season in Baltimore. Jonathan Ogden recently became the first player drafted by the Ravens to reach the Hall of Fame, and Ray Lewis and Ed Reed are expected to join him. The Ravens have reached the playoffs in five of the past six seasons, including three AFC Championship Games and one Super Bowl victory.

It's a new tradition of success for a new generation of fans. The average age for Ravens personal seat license owners is 53, which means many Ravens fans were in their early 20s when the Colts left.

"We’ve got one of youngest demographics in the league for a reason," Bisciotti said. "The Ravens came in and a lot of 60-year-olds were not prepared to support us. Well, they’re pushing 80 now. I think we won over half of them because of winning and half of them are dead."

Some believe the hatred for the horseshoe diminished when Irsay died in 1997. Others believe closure occurred when the Ravens won the Super Bowl in 2000.

The true test that Baltimore was over the Colts came during the 2012 playoffs. This game wasn't about the Ravens beating Indianapolis for the first time in the postseason. It will be remembered as the final home game for Ray Lewis, the best player in Ravens history.

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOUR HOME TEAM LEAVES

Thirty years ago this weekend, the Baltimore Colts packed up in Mayflower moving trucks and fled to Indianapolis for good. Comedian Ryan Sickler tells the funny story about one of the worst nights of his life.

I remember the first time I saw my dad cry. That’s a huge moment in a boy’s life. There was nothing I hadn’t seen him handle. I knew it was serious.

For a while, my father was a single dad with three boys. I have a younger brother who’s almost four years younger, along with twin brother. We’re fraternal twins, but we did have identical twin beds.

(That line kills at twin conventions.)

We grew up in Maryland and, in 1983, the Colts were still in Baltimore. And they meant everything to our city. They were NFL Champions with legends like Johnny Unitas, Raymond Berry, Lenny Moore, and Gino Marchetti.

The Colts were loved, and they were ours. And I was crazy about them. I played tackle football in my plastic Colts helmet. When it was cold, I wore my Colts winter jacket. I went to sleep in my Colts pajamas.

One day during the 1983 season, my dad took us to a Colts practice. Back then it was nothing like it is now. The players were approachable. Not just for autographs. They would talk to you, like people.

I remember standing on the sideline when a receiver, Raymond Butler, asked me if I wanted to play catch.

Did I want to play catch with a Baltimore Colt?

Hell yes I wanted to play catch with a Baltimore Colt! Next thing I know, I’m on the sideline tossing the ball with Raymond Butler. He mentioned that maybe next year when the new season rolled around I could be a ball boy if I was interested.

Did I want to be a ball boy for the Baltimore Colts?

Hell yes I wanted to be a ball boy for the Baltimore Colts!

My father saw what was going on and came over. My brothers came with him.

Raymond Butler was a nice guy and when he saw my brothers he said to my father, “I didn’t realize you had three boys. I’m not sure it would be fair for just one to be a ballboy.”

My dad saw the look on my face. And he saw an opportunity. He knew how bad I wanted this.

“The hell with those two," he said. "You asked Ryan. That’s life. If they wouldn’t have been over there screwing around they could’ve been playing catch with you — getting me season tickets, like my new favorite son.”

At that moment, my dad was excited as I was. One conversation later, he tells me that I’m going to be a ball boy for the 1984 Baltimore Colts.

Fall turns to winter. The 1983 season ends.

On March 29, 1984, three weeks after my eleventh birthday, on a cold, snowy night, I was sound asleep in my identical twin bed next to my fraternal twin brother and my father shook me awake.

“Hey. Hey! Wake up,” he says. “The Colts are gone.”

I’m still groggy, so I don’t really know what he’s saying. I mean, I think I do, but there’s no way I heard what I think I heard. He repeats.

“The Colts are gone.”

“Wait. What? What do you mean the Colts are gone? They were here today.”

“I don’t know what’s going on, but they’re packed up in Mayflower moving trucks and headed west into the black.”

“The Colts are gone?”

“The Colts are gone.”

My father, my brothers, and I run downstairs to watch the news and there, just like my dad said, are the Mayflower moving trucks rolling out of town into the blackness.

I looked over at my dad and he had tears streaming down his face as he sat watching his season tickets drive away on his television. I’m crying. The ball boy gig is gone.

My brothers are crying. We’re all crying. Our Colts are gone. I looked at my dad.

“Dad. You didn’t cry when mom said she was leaving.”

“I can marry another woman,” he said. “That’s something I can help control. I don’t know if we’ll ever see football in this town again.”

Now, I know that some of you aren’t sports fans. I know some of you are and you’ve never lost your team like that. So let me put this in perspective for you: Let’s say you’re home sleeping tonight — hopefully not in an identical twin bed — and someone shakes you awake to say this:

“Hey. Hey! Titties are gone!”

You’d be like, “Wait. What?”

“Titties are gone.”

“What do you mean titties are gone? Titties were here today.”

“I don’t know what’s going on, but they packed up in Mayflower moving trucks and they’re headed west into the black.”

“Titties are gone?”

“Titties are gone.”

Imagine that.

You go home tonight, and when you wake up tomorrow we enter a titty-less era. With no end in sight.

That would be devastating. Everyone loves titties. Women love titties. Men love titties. Hell, babies need titties. I have nightmares about the questions people born during the titty-less era would ask me.

Then, in 1996, after a 12-year drought, the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Baltimore Ravens. The truth is I was excited to have football back in Baltimore, but I wasn’t excited about how we got the new team. I wasn’t crazy about getting a team from another city because I knew what it felt like to lose my team.

But before Baltimore got the Ravens, my father died. He was 42.

My father died young, in a titty-less era.

To this day, I carry that with me. No matter where I am in the country, any time I see a Mayflower moving truck I give that guy the finger. And that dude is always like, “What the hell did I do?"

“You know what the fk you did,” I scream. “You crushed my dreams, helped kill my dad and took titties!”

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

April 5 - 4th Annual Fund Raising Dance Benefiting Roost Activities & Local Charities, 7-11 PM, Featuring the Band TRANZFUSION. Ocean City Elks Lodge Hall -137th St. Bayside. $ 25 pp incl. Beer, Wine, Soda, Snacks & Cash Bar with Door prizes & Money Wheel. Tickets will be available at all Roost Meetings & also by contacting: Ron Apperson 302-436-4790 or Mary Kendall 302-934-7210. ronapperson@msn.com; mkendall@mchsi.com. UPDATE: Current ticket status is 155 paid + 6 promised but unpaid; for a total of 161 (down from 165 last year). There are still 21 seats available spread among the current 15 tables in groups of 2,4,7 & 8. We can sell 14 more tickets to reach a sellout of 175. There will be at least 15 door prizes with a total value of over $300 ! The Clarion donated a free 2 nite stay that has a value of $208 - $338 depending on what month it is used. We may auction this off after the door prizes with a starting bid of ONLY $10 ! Looking forward to a fun filled, profitable evening that is a good value for the money. Don't forget, you can bring your own additional snacks if you want. Those Roost members who have never attended the dance might want to try it this year! Thanks, Ron

May 30 - Ravens Roost #44 17th Annual Scholarship Golf Tournament @ Ocean Pines Golf & Country Club. Registration forms can be had here. We are expecting another sell out, so be sure to sign up early - don’t get shut out as some did last year.

May 29 thru June 1 - The Council of Ravens Roosts Annual Convention. From Jo Ann: The Council of Baltimore Ravens Roosts Convention begins Thursday, May 29, and ends Sunday, June 1, at the Castle in the Sand Motel. The theme this year is “Celebrating 50 Years of Fan-Tastic Baltimore Football. The cost this year is $60 per registrant. A registration form is available here.

Commemorative shirts are also available: hoodies (mens sizes only) in gray or purple; mens t-shirts and tanks, and women’s t-shirts and tanks, available in white, gray or purple. Prices range from $11.00 for t-shirts and tanks to $20 for the hoodies. Larger sizes (2, 3, 4, & 5 XL) are an additional $2 or more.

I haven’t received a schedule of events yet, but in years past there were team events that any registered participant could enter, such as horseshoes, volleyball, tug-of-war, a scavenger hunt, bingo, miniature golf, and karaoke. Please think about organizing a team to show off our talent. Specific information and sign-up sheets will be available at the April meeting, so talk to your Roost friends and come up with a team to participate.

All of the registration forms must be submitted to me by the April 10 meeting. Make checks payable to Ravens Roost 44, and give to me at the meeting, or mail to 126 Pine Tree Rd., Ocean City, MD 21842. Please remember: Everyone who attends must be registered. There is no “sharing” of food and beverage.

I encourage our new members, as well as the members who have been in the Roost for a while, to attend the Convention. It is a great way to spend some time with our own Roost members and to meet fans from other Roosts. And, it’s always a lot of fun.

Any questions, please call me at 410-251-4360 or e-mail me at jelder10@verizon.net. Folks, we only have 13 members signed up so far. Please consider spending the weekend at the Castle - it’s not only loads of fun and camaraderie but also supports the Council.

Dues are due. From Jo Ann: Dues are past due - if you haven’t paid by now you are in arrears. Mail them to me at: Jo Ann Elder, 126 Pine Tree Rd., Ocean City, MD 21842. If you have any questions, please e-mail me at: jelder10@verizon.net, or call me at 410-250-5124. Thanks.

Ravens Poop

Good daily dose of Ravens news notes and nuggetshere. It’s getting to the point where I can hardly stand ESPN, but I do go Jamison Hensley’s Blog here to stay up to date with all of the AFC North news.

All the best Orioles news notes and nuggets at Britt's Bird Watch here.

Local Poop

Saturday - Kisses for Colby 5K, Ocean Pines Recreation Center. Colby is a four-year-old girl from Ocean City who has been battling Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) since she was diagnosed in January 2013. An extremely feisty and fearless little girl, she has earned the nickname “Warrior Princess” for the amazing stamina and fight she has demonstrated through her continued treatment at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) is a type of cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow. ALL is the most common and treatable type of cancer in children, although it progresses rapidly and must be identified and treated early.

Colby’s family and friends are joining together in the “Kisses for Colby 5K” to raise money for The Leukemia Lymphoma Society (LLS), the world’s largest voluntary health agency dedicated to blood cancer research. Their relentless efforts are focused on making life better for hundreds of thousands of patients and their families battling leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. Please join Colby’s family and friends Saturday, March 29th for a fun morning to raise money for LLS and to help win the fight against this horrible disease that is taking the lives of children and adults. http://octrirunning.com/ocean-city-md-running-event/kisses-for-colby-5k/

Saturday - America’s Coolest Party - Downtown Berlin will be the coolest place to be on Saturday, March 29th, when the Town of Berlin will shut down Main Street from 1-6 p.m. for the sole purpose of celebrating its victory as America’s Coolest Small Town!

“It’s time to thank and recognize everyone who chose to “Vote Berlin” during the contest,” said Mayor Gee Williams. “If you love Berlin this celebration will be a full day of fun for all ages and friends, family members and of course all of our residents and visitors. “We have a lot to be proud of and much to celebrate,” added Mayor Williams.

Berlin is known for its various events such as Spring Celebration, May Day Play Day and The Peach Festival and Fiddler’s Convention to name a few, but this party is going to be like non-other, with lots of food, fun, local artists, students from Worcester County public and private schools, give-a-ways, souvenirs, several top-40 bands and Berlin musician and merchant Steve Frene, who will perform his instant hit song, “Cool Berlin.” The event begins at 1 p.m. with a parade on Main Street exclusively featuring Berlin Youth from a variety of organizations.

Berlin beat out 14 other small towns in online voting since January. Nearly 138,000 votes were cast and Berlin received more that 28 percent of the total with 39,000 votes. Budget Travel characterized Berlin as the “runaway favorite.” Budget Travel Magazine noted Berlin is good for beach lovers, hikers, bird watchers and history lovers alike.

For this special day of celebration additional free parking areas will be available, as there is no metered parking at any time in the Town of Berlin. Hoopers Crab House has generously agreed to transport event attendees with its shuttle bus to and from marked temporary satellite parking locations within the town.

As part of the coolest celebration, the Berlin Fire Company will host its First Annual “Cornhole Tournament” at the fire house grounds on North Main Street. Beginning at 11:30 a.m. participants can try and set a new “world record” by attempting the longest cornhole hand-thrown (bean bag) shot, ever. Attempts will be $5 for three shots, officials will be on site and the contest and this promises to be a popular fund raiser for the Berlin Fire Company. Beer and other refreshments will also be available during the contest at the fire house.

In downtown Berlin, non-glass open containers will be permitted from 1-6 p.m. in a clearly marked designated area. No beverages of any kind may be brought into the celebration area. The Berlin Chamber of Commerce will have a beer garden set up on Jefferson Street featuring craft brews from Berlin’s Burley Oak Brewery. Also, “Berlin Coolest Small Town” apparel and other memorabilia will also be available for purchase.

Mayor Williams added, “Aside from the fact that this is a once in a lifetime event, Berlin’s America’s Coolest Party is sure to go down as one of the region’s most enjoyable celebrations and be remembered as a town classic. Everyone is invited to join the celebration, after all it is our residents and guests who make Berlin so cool.”

Funny Poop

How do you get a Steelers fan off your porch? Pay him for the pizza.

Etcetera

Got poop? Let me know! I’m going to try to get this out every Wednesday so if you get it to me by Tuesday I’ll try to include it. Your input is appreciated.